


Classroom Rule #3: Take Care of Our Toys/Equipment

by bookfreak1317



Series: Classroom Rules [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Hulk Movies, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Pepper Potts, Contracts, Kinda neutral towards everyone else, Not Steve Rogers Friendly, Stark Industries, Team Tony, legal mumbo jumbo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-07-03 12:29:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15818892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookfreak1317/pseuds/bookfreak1317
Summary: SHIELD has fallen and the Avengers have a new sugar daddy. And they’re only willing to pay so much for their little toys....





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lord_Monthul](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lord_Monthul/gifts).



> Disclaimer: The MCU doesn't belong to me.
> 
> Prompt by Lord_Monthul: You know how in elementary school we're taught to respect people's properties? Can you write one where Steve breaks things and just expects them to be fixed so he's not very careful with them. Then someone from shield or S.I explains why he needs to stop doing that but he continues and starts causing problems with the rest of the avengers. I want to read stories where the team turns on Steve early instead of after they have an epiphany of how bad Steve is.
> 
> Hi everyone! I wrote the next installment of this series. Whoot!
> 
> This is part 1 of 2. I'm going to apologize, I kinda went overboard with all of the legal mumbo jumbo and negotiations in this chapter because I feel like this is where Pepper excels the most at kicking ass. The next chapter will have the Avengers dealing with others and with Rogers having to face his teammates. No promises about when that will be up, but hopefully it's soon!
> 
> Thanks to everyone for reading. I appreciate each and every one of you. :) Please feel free to leave constructive criticism in the comments below!

“Miss Potts?” Pepper looked up from her paperwork in order to acknowledge her secretary.

“Yes Amanda?”

“Your 11 o’clock appointment is here.” Amanda hesitated before continuing. “And they’ve brought guests.”

Pepper scowled at Amanda’s words. Her request for a meeting had only been sent to Steve Rogers but she shouldn’t be surprised that Rogers brought his lackeys with him. He was probably trying to stronghold her, but he should know better than try to one-up her.

“Just send them in Amanda. Please request for extra chairs to be brought to my office.” Pepper said while standing up and smoothing out her outfit. “And Amanda!” The secretary stuck her head back in. “Please have security ready and on alert. As a precaution of course.”

“Mr. Rogers,” Pepper said, throwing on a media smile as she walked out of her office. “Thank you so much for coming in! I wasn’t expecting you to bring guests though, I’m going to have to request extra chairs be brought in.”

“No worries Ms. Potts.” Rogers said, flashing a smile of his own. “You mentioned that this meeting was regarding the Avengers so I figured I should bring in the members. This Clint Barton, Hawkeye; Sam Wilson, the Falcon; and you know Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow.”

“It’s a pleasure to see all of you.” Pepper said, waving them into her office. “Ms. Romanoff, is that the name you’re going by now or should I call you Ms. Romanova?” Pepper’s smile turned a little sharper at her words.

The men shot Romanoff a questioning look at Pepper’s words. “Natalia Romanova was a SHIELD cover. I apologize for that deception Pepper. Please call me Natasha Romanoff.”

“Of course. And please call me Ms. Potts.” Pepper may have been friends with Romanoff at one point, but not anymore.

A flash of surprise spread across Romanoff’s face before it smoothed out. Looks like Romanoff thought things were going to go in a different direction. Whoops. “Of course, Ms. Potts. I apologize.”

“No worries.” Pepper said with a smile, as the men watched on with fascination. “Looks like those chairs are here.”

After a little bit of awkward shuffling, they were all able to settle into their seats.

“Mr. Rogers, you said that because this regards the Avengers, you believe that the Avengers members should be involved. Does that mean that Dr. Banner, Dr. Stark, and Colonel Rhodes will be joining us? Should we wait to start the meeting?”

Surprise spread across Rogers face at her words. “Uh… No. I figured that Bruce and Tony would be too busy with their science experiments. And Colonel Rhodes is usually busy with his military missions. I didn’t want to bother them.”

“No worries.” Pepper said. “There are security cameras located throughout my office. I can send all three gentlemen a video copy of our conversation. Speaking of, we should begin.” Pepper brought out a pile of paperwork from the top drawer of her desk.

“Six months ago, one month after SHIELD fell, SI’s Avengers’ liaison Maria Hill reached out to you regarding your contract with SI. She wished to go over the exact details regarding what this contract involved and how it was previously handled with SHIELD. Ms. Hill mentioned to me that you seemed confused about the contract and how it functioned. So after that conversation, we offered lawyers from SI’s Avengers division to go over the details with you and any other individuals interested. According to my records here, everyone on the team all did consult the lawyers but some individuals had longer consults than others. Mr. Rogers did consult lawyers twice before never returning. Mr. Barton and Ms. Romanoff consulted the lawyers three times but the consultations went quickly according to the lawyers, due to the similarities to their previous contracts. Mr. Wilson and Dr. Banner repeatedly consulted the lawyers over a period of three weeks. And finally, Dr. Stark and Colonel Rhodes were involved in the contract negotiations and required no additional consultations.” Pepper explained while looking over the lawyers’ reports. “Were these consultations beneficial?”

Everyone except for Rogers nodded their heads. “Mr. Rogers, did you not find the consultations useful?”

Rogers hesitated a moment before speaking. “They were more confusing than anything else. They were using a large amount of legal mumbo jumbo that I didn’t understand.”

“I’m sorry to hear that Mr. Rogers. But I do want to remind you that you could’ve asked for additional resources or could’ve asked for a different individual to consult. We do have a whole department dedicated to the Avengers Initiative you could’ve consulted.”

“A whole department?” Rogers looked extremely confused at those words. “What do you mean?”

“After SHIELD fell, SI absorbed a bunch of SHIELD Agents and developed a department just for the Avengers Initiative. This department controls public relations, helps with identifying threats, plans Avengers missions, and assists with clean up once the mission ends.” Barton explained. Pepper was happy to know that some of these Avengers were paying attention to what was happening. “They have been the one assigning us missions these past few months. Did you not realize? Where did you think the missions were coming from?”

“I thought Maria was finding and assigning these missions.” Rogers said, looking sheepish.

“Maria Hill is our liaison so while she does assist with assigning missions, she does not do it alone.” Pepper explained. “Her main job is to communicate with the Avengers and help you with whatever necessary. So if you have requests, you tell her. In return, she will inform you of our requests and your missions. You should’ve received a copy of her job description after SHIELD fell. You also should’ve received a copy of your contract and descriptions of our department and everyone’s position within it. We made sure to send both paper and electronic copies to everyone in the Avengers Initiative.”

“I never received any of that!” Rogers quickly said. “If I had, I would obviously know more.”

“I’m sorry to hear that Mr. Rogers. Here at SI, we take pride in our promptness and our accuracy. We’ll have to update our records on you immediately.” Pepper said as she typed on her computer. She turned the screen around to show the room the contact information she had on file for Steve Rogers. “I do have to ask though, if our information on you is incorrect, how did you receive my invite to this meeting? I sent it to the email and home address we have on file.”

“Oh, um… I actually have JARVIS sort through my email and organize things according to my priorities. Tony offered that once he saw how overwhelmed I was with it. As for actual mail, SHIELD received all of that information and sorted through it for me. I’ve received some threats in the mail previously, so they took over that.” Rogersexplained. “After they fell, um… I’m not sure what actually happened to my mail.”

Pepper felt the vein in her forehead throb at Rogers' words. Who in the world wouldn’t care about their mail? “Okay. That would explain the mail. What about your emails? How does JARVIS sort that for you?”

“Um, basically, if I have never spoken to the person before, it is junk. So I received your invite to come in today because I have spoken to you on a few occasions.”

Pepper had to take in a deep breath and resist the urge to strangle Rogers. She also had to resist the urge to call up Tony and yell at him for letting Rogers, who is uneducated about the 21st century, have that kind of control over his email.

“Okay. Well that would explain your lack of knowledge about the contracts. I totally understand how confusing technology is nowadays. Even though I am the CEO of Stark Industries, the leading technology company in the world, I still get overwhelmed by everything. I am going to get you set up with an appointment with the Avengers department to get you settled with everything. For now, let’s just discuss your previous conversation with Maria Hill.” Pepper said, before calling in Amanda and requesting that she make the appointment.

Rogers nodded his head eagerly. “I remember that conversation. While a large portion was confusing, I did understand some parts of it.”

“Great!” Pepper couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief. “Hopefully this conversation clears things up. And if they don’t, your teammates here should be able to help you out. They all seem to have an understanding of things.”

Pepper gave Rogers a physical copy of the contract before beginning. “The largest concern SI has currently is cost. While there are funds in place, they will not last. SHIELD had a large budget dedicated solely to the Avengers and after their fall, we were able to petition for access to those funds. SI is also able to afford to allocate a budget for the Avengers Initiative as well. The US government does occasionally throw some money our way, but the Avengers aren’t a top priority. Put that all together and it adds up to be quite a pretty penny.” Pepper said as she handed over a copy of a statement of the funds. “Not only that, but all Avengers members who were contracted with SHIELD were able to receive a year’s worth of pay and that pay is in your personal accounts. Unfortunately, members were unable to receive the rest of the pay dictated in their contracts. The rest was seized by the US government as reparation for the damage caused when SHIELD fell. So if your contract was for 10 years, the other 9 years of pay were seized.”

“Why would they do that? That’s not their money!” Rogers exclaimed angrily.

“It is now.” Romanoff said, looking bored while glancing at her nails. “We went behind a lot of people’s backs and a lot of people were hurt. Not only that, but a lot of damage was caused because we refused to talk to anyone. We’re lucky we weren’t arrested and locked away for what we did. Losing some money is nothing in comparison. It’s easy to make that money back by taking on a few side missions from the United States government.”

“That’s what we’ve been doing these past few months.” Barton said, bouncing in his seat a little excitedly. “It’s quick and easy. The CIA is always looking for a little extra input and assistance. Being an Avenger makes for a great resume. I can give you some contact information if you’d like!”

“I’m glad you’re making connections, but if we can go back to the conversation on hand, that would be fantastic.” Pepper interjected. She couldn’t help the little bit of glee at the look of surprise and confusion on Roger’s face when he found out the two ex-SHIELD agents had jobs outside of the Avengers. Hopefully seeing his friends being responsible will help him become better himself.

“While we do have a large amount of funds currently available, they will not last and we shouldn’t only be relying on these funds. I’m ecstatic to hear that we are already making the right moves towards building up both a back up fund while also having funds available to pay for what SI can’t or won’t cover.”

“What kind of costs is SI covering?” Wilson asked, looking slightly overwhelmed. “I’m still new to this whole Avenging thing, so I’m not sure about money. Will I have to contribute a large amount? I don’t make a lot amount of money at my counseling position.”

“The major costs we face are the cost of equipping and training the Avengers, the cost of running the missions, and the cost of clean up. Dr. Stark very generously waived his consultation fees for the Avengers equipment and training materials. He is willing to design for free, but he is still charging for the cost of materials and for the pay for the engineers assisting with these designs. The Avengers department classifies equipment and training materials into 3 categories: essential, optional, and trivial. The department will cover the cost of anything deemed essential and half of anything deemed optional. Individuals will be required to pay for everything else.”

“What classifies as optional and trivial?” Rogers asked. “Can the department just decide anything with a high price tag isn’t worth it and push the responsibility onto us?” Rogers scowled at those words.

“If you have a problem with any labeling, please submit a request to the department and we will overlook it again. Mistakes do happen, and we are happy to fix any you or we may find.” Pepper said with a smile. “So an essential item would be a replacement combat suit for one destroyed in the field. An optional item would include an upgraded suit before the mid-year upgrade and before the original suit was damaged beyond repair. A trivial item would be someone requesting new ‘indestructible’ punching bags every week.” Pepper did send a glare Rogers way at that last item. “Once we have fixed that email problem of yours, Mr. Rogers, I am sure you’ll find a couple dozen receipts for the punching bags you’ve purchased over the past few months. For all purchases, you used your SHIELD issue credit card. In the future, please use your personal debit or credit card. We don’t want to constantly play email tag with you.”

Rogers looked like he wanted to argue at that, but Wilson put a hand on his arm and shook his head. Good. It looked like Wilson was going to handle that particular problem.

“As for the cost of running and planning missions, as long as the mission is sanctioned by the Avengers department and the US Government, the costs are covered. Everything regarding the mission MUST be submitted for it to be classified as sanctioned. So Mr. Rogers, Mr. Wilson, and Ms. Romanoff, at the end of the month, you will find some receipts in your inbox regarding your recent Quinjet uses this past month. I have to say that they are pretty pricey. Thankfully, all 3 of you went on the same two trips so the costs will be split 3 ways.”

“Wait, those missions weren’t sanctioned?” Wilson asked, sending a glare towards Rogers. “You said that everything was in place for the mission and that it was okay for us to use the Quinjet! It must be expensive to fly that thing.”

“You are right, Mr. Wilson. Fuel alone is quite pricey. Add in the cost of landing and storing the Quinjet, the cost of the flight crew, the cost sanitizing the Quinjet afterwards, and the cost of your last minute visas, it adds up to almost half a million dollars.” Pepper said with a smirk as she handed over physical copies of the bills. Damn, she was enjoying this too much.

“Steve!” Romanoff hissed angrily, causing the super soldier to flinch. “You said that you went through the proper channels for these missions! I don’t have that kind of money just laying around!”

“I thought I had! When you asked about proper channels, I thought I only had to make sure you and Sam were on board and that the crew for the Quinjet were all set. I didn’t realize there was a whole department for it!” Rogers said hurriedly. “Besides, I don’t think the department should get a say in these missions. They are important and private.” Rogers threw a glare at Pepper.

“That is totally fine Mr. Rogers. You don’t have to disclose any information if you don’t want to. You just have to pay the costs for anything. And if you don’t, we **will** cut off your access to the Quinjet. We are not in the business of losing money because you can’t read the Stark Industries logo on the side.” Pepper said with a smile, showing more teeth than anything else.

“Ms. Potts, I didn’t know that we didn’t have the proper clearance.” Wilson said in a hurry, sweat starting to bead at his hairline. “I know I should’ve double checked, but I trusted Steve to have done things right. Is there any way we can fix this situation? Because I honestly don’t have that kind of money.”

“Ms. Potts,” Romanoff interjected smoothly. “What if we go down to the Avengers department after this meeting and give them a mission report of what we were doing? I can also give them footage from the Black Widow suit, to confirm what we say is true. If the department finds this to be a legitimate mission, would they be willing to cover the costs?

“Natasha, no!” Rogers hissed angrily. “They have NO right to know about what we were doing! These were private and important missions! You said you would keep quiet about this.”

Romanoff turned to glare at Rogers, causing him to flinch back. “Steve, when you said to keep quiet about this mission I thought you meant to not mention anything to people outside of the mission. I was silly enough to think that included the individuals arranging and planning these missions. I didn’t realize you hadn’t involved the department IN CHARGE of our missions. I should’ve realized you would hide this from Stark’s people. You’ve always been distrustful of Stark.” Romanoff turned back to Pepper. “I am more than willing to talk to people about those two unsanctioned missions. I apologize for the confusion and for the mistakes we made.”

Pepper was extremely pleased at Romanoff's words. “Mr. Wilson, are you willing to do the same?”

Wilson nodded his head eagerly. “Yes, of course. I’d be more than willing.”

“Perfect!” Pepper said with a big smile. “I’ll send an email down to the department right away. With you two willing to fix up this little mess, I’m sure we can arrange something for your two parts of the bill.”

Romanoff gave a stiff nod of her head and Wilson let out a visible sigh of relief.

“As for you Mr. Rogers, you will still have to pay. Just because your friends are willing to fix their mistakes doesn’t mean that yours are null and void. If you decide to submit a mission report as well, the department will offer the same arrangement they agree on to you as well.”

Rogers looked around the furiously, hoping to find a sympathetic face. Instead, he only found anger and disbelief. After a minute, he finally grunted out an answer. “I’ll think about it.”

“Excellent!” Pepper said with a clap of her hands. “Now, onto the final part of our meeting. The cost of clean up. This is the most complicated and most important part of our contract. We have formed a board that is currently reviewing all of your missions from the last 6 months. The individuals on the board will be a constant mix of Avengers department officials and US government officials. If your mission takes place within the US, a representative from the state where it occurred will sit on the board. If the mission takes place outside of the United States, an official from the country will be elected by their government to join our board. And finally, a member from the Avengers Initiative will be elected to sit on the board. No member can sit on the board for more than 3 mission in a row. We don’t want any biases to form.”

“Why does there need to be a board? This sounds like a waste of everyone’s time. What does this board even do!” Rogers snapped angrily. “Why do they need to be involved in OFFICIAL Avengers business.”

“If you actually read your emails Steve, you would know that this board is in charge of evaluating how much damage we caused and how much it will cost to clean it all up.” Barton said, spinning around in his chair. “If the board finds that we caused unnecessary collateral damage, that it could’ve been avoided, they will give us a form of punishment.”

“Mr. Barton is partially correct with his explanation.” Pepper said, pleased that someone was paying attention to what was going on. “It’s not a punishment though, it is a reinforcer for better teamwork and awareness while out on the field. If you cause unnecessary collateral damage, the board will require a monetary payment and for you to undergo additional training in order to prevent any future damage. If you are unable to afford the payment upfront, we are more than willing to work with you. We can arrange a payment plan and if that isn’t possible, we can arrange an alternative. Community service is a very popular idea at the moment.” Pepper handed over a list of possible service to all individuals. “Since this is the first time the board is reviewing your missions, they will go easier on you. From here on out though, since all of you now understand the demands, that won’t be happening.”

Pepper took a moment to analyze the individuals sitting in front of her. Rogers looked frustrated and like someone kicked his puppy, Romanoff and Barton both looked bored, and Wilson looked confused and overwhelmed. Overall, she had to say this was a successful meeting.

“I know that I just threw a lot at you all, but no worries! Our Avengers department is always here to talk to you about anything you need.” Pepper said with a smile, as she stood up. “Thank you all so much for coming in today.”

Pepper shook everyone’s hand as they left. She stood in her doorway for a moment to watch them walk down the hall. After getting on the elevator, she was happy to see that they had selected the 14th floor where the Avengers department was located.

Pepper went back into her office, grabbed her purse and coat, and locked her door. “Amanda.”

“Yes Ms. Potts?” Amanda asked, smirking a little at the pleased look on her boss’ face.

“Please forward all of my calls to my voicemail. I think I’m going to take a long lunch.” Pepper couldn't help but swagger a little on her way over to the elevator. Damn, it was good to be the boss.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: The MCU doesn't belong to me.
> 
> Prompt by Lord_Monthul: You know how in elementary school we're taught to respect people's properties? Can you write one where Steve breaks things and just expects them to be fixed so he's not very careful with them. Then someone from shield or S.I explains why he needs to stop doing that but he continues and starts causing problems with the rest of the avengers. I want to read stories where the team turns on Steve early instead of after they have an epiphany of how bad Steve is.
> 
> Hi everyone! Here is the next and final chapter of this little story. I hope y'all enjoy it. :)
> 
> This chapter is shorter than the previous one, but I couldn't think of anything else it needed. It's short and to the point, while also being a little bit brutal to Steve. It's time for him to get a reality check, and he's definitely not ready for it.
> 
> Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting! I promise that I am reading your comments, I just keep forgetting to reply. I promise I'm working on that. :)

“What the hell was that?!” Everyone lurched to the side as the elevator suddenly came to a stop.

“Ouch. Natasha, what was that for?” Steve asked, rubbing the side of his head that hit the elevator wall.

“It was for what just happened!”

“ ‘What just happened’? What do you mean?” Steve asked, sounding and looking confused. What was wrong with Natasha?

“Are you kidding me?” Natasha hissed angrily, her face turning as red as her hair. “Did you already forget everything about the conversation we just had with Potts? That was an absolute disaster! How can you be so stupid? Did your brain leak out of your ears after your meeting with Hill and the lawyers?”

Steve couldn’t help but flinch at Natasha’s words. “I did listen! But their reasons and explanations didn’t make much sense, and it just didn’t seem important.”

“Steve,” Sam said with a pained expression. “How could money and Avengers regulations not be important? It's just like real life. All adults have to worry about bills and about following the rules.”

Steve started to prepare a rebuttal before it suddenly hit him. During his life, he never really had to worry about bills or money. Growing up, he was unable to work. His Ma took care of him and then Bucky did. Steve did get the occasional job but they never lasted. They didn’t care about his sickness, or they were a bunch of bullies. The jobs weren't worth it. Before Bucky left for war, he left enough money for a few months worth of rent, allowing Steve to put all of his focus on joining the Army. Once Steve went into the ice, he didn’t have to worry about money again. SHIELD took care of everything. Money and bills had never been Steve’s problem before.

“It’s because everyone has always taken care of you.” Clint said with a snort. “I saw your files at SHIELD, they paid for  _everything_ , while you got to be a superhero. Now the real world is kicking you in the ass and you don’t know how to handle it. I’m sorry that life has been so easy for you, but you are in your 20's. You need to learn how to take care of yourself.”

Steve looked around the elevator, hoping for a sympathetic face, but he only saw Sam’s pained concern, Clint’s apathy, and Natasha’s anger. Steve couldn’t help the sinking feeling he felt as he looked at their faces. He realized then and there, that these people weren’t really on his side. That they only cared about the money. They didn’t care about the people and public like he did. They didn't care about the innocents like Bucky.

“What does money matter in the long run? Our job is to save and protect people. Not paying bills for the littlest things!” Steve exclaimed, hoping to persuade them and make them see his side of things. “We shouldn’t be limiting ourselves in such a way. That isn’t our job. We need to be completely focused on our missions. Anything else is a distraction and is harmful.”

All three individuals looked incredulous at Steve’s words. Sam opened his mouth a few times before shutting it. Clint shook his head and muttered under his breath. Natasha’s set her lips into a straight line. After a moment of heavy silence, she reach out and hit a button in the elevator. After a few seconds of moment, the elevator doors dinged and opened.

Clint and Sam quickly got off, walking over to the receptionist’s desk. Steve went to follow, but Natasha blocked him.

“Listen here Rogers. I am not going to let you fuck this up situation any more than you already have. We cannot afford for you to ruin the Avengers and our relationship with Stark Industries anymore than you already have.” Natasha growled, her eyes flashing angrily. “I may not be Stark’s biggest fan, but he is a necessary evil. He has the spotlight and funds that we require to function as a team. Without him and SI, the Avengers are nothing. _Y_ _ ou _ are nothing. So you need to respect the new status quo and suck it up. You need to tell them about our missions searching for the Winter Soldier."

Dread filled Steve with those words. No, Tony couldn’t find out about Bucky. Who knew what he would do. “Natasha, no. They’re gonna try to take this mission away from us. They don’t know Bucky like I do. They won't understand him and care for him. If Tony finds out…” Steve’s voice trailed off. He couldn't even imagine what Tony could do. It only took a second for Steve to realize what he told Natasha. The look on her face was a mixture of surprise and resignation.

“You haven’t told him yet." Natasha's voice was bland yet forceful, causing Steve to flinch.

Steve didn’t even try to answer, he only gave a tiny nod.

“You said you would tell Stark. You  _ promised _ you would.” Natasha said slowly. “And like an idiot, I believed you. If you don’t tell them the truth now, it’s all on you. I’m going to tell them, Sam’s going to tell them, and Clint’s going to share whatever he heard about the Soldier from SHIELD. There’s no hiding this. But do know this, that if you don’t talk on your own, I won’t hesitate to throw you under the bus." And with those final words, Natasha spun on her heels and went to join Sam and Clint, who were following the receptionist down the hall.

Steve wanted to follow, to beg them not to talk, but his legs felt like lead and the words were stuck in his throat. He watched the elevator doors close slowly and felt the elevator start moving. He should've hit a button, got out on the next floor, but all he could think about was the fact that he couldn’t save Bucky.


End file.
